kevin s's blog

[kstrutt1]

next we moved onto the rear chassis rail and surrounding area, the edge of the bot floor, the member it's self and the closing palel all needed replacing.

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we made this as an assembly off the car and welded it on, Andrew (my 11 year old son who's car it is) also did much of the welding, he also learnt how to stretch metal to make the domed section.

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here it is welded in place.

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and finally the wheel arch area was closed off.

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[JPB]

Great save! It's refreshing to see one of these being built up properly, given how many are feckered around by people who are more into potential profit than the car's long-term prospects. Keep up the good work.

[Luxobarge]

Good stuff. That's some nice welding kit you've got there!

Cheers

[kstrutt1]

All the welding on the minor has been done with the mig, I used the tig for the alloy on the land rover(a bit messy but strong enough, I have heard even the professionals have problems with 50 year old birmabright) and when I made a cartridge water pump for the Lotus, which came out very neat, the main problem with it though is the cost of pure argon. I may well use it on the roof of the minor though as you can use it with very low currents and get a neat weld.

[kstrutt1]

Great save! It's refreshing to see one of these being built up properly, given how many are feckered around by people who are more into potential profit than the car's long-term prospects. Keep up the good work.

This is what appears to have been done previously, some of it is frankly frightening, because they have plated over the rust many of the panels are no longer structurally connected to each other, even though from the outside it looks fine and would pass a mot.

[megadethmaniac]

did you know that argon is available on the Volkszone deal?

Argon Size Y Cylinder (same as ArgoShield Volkszone offer)
Refill - £30 excl Vat
Surcharge - £1.92 excl VAT
Yearly Rent - £54 excl VAT
NO PICKUP CHARGE !!

[kstrutt1]

I have been getting it from an adams agent in Grays, no yearly rent but around £50 for pure argon, if I start using it more the deal you mention may be worth looking into.

[kstrutt1]

we have dona a litle more on the minor, firstly I have repaired the passenger side wing mounting flange as far forward as I can reach (approx the rear 3/4) the rest will be done when the car is turned around.

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I then cut open around the shackle and was pleasantly suprised to find only minimal rust on this side, basically the rust was confined to the area under the shipping tie down plate and the immeadiatally surrounding metal, I will just need to replace the flange on the bottom and the inner wing panel, as well as the reinforcement behind it. Worryingly past poor repairs meant the tube the bushes pass through was not actually attached to anything on the outer side at all.

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before cutting any more metal away on this side I wanted to make sure the rear panel was stable so we replaced the rear edge of the boot floor on the other side, we cut and folded a piece of metal on my home made angle iron folder and then welded it in, I will also need to replace a part of the rear panel(butt weld in) at some tome as well. We removed the latch braket and spare wheel bracket reinfocement which will be cleaned up and re-used, we were suprised how rusty what apppeared to be sound metal in the floor area around here was, once Andrew had finished with it it was full holes, hence why the whole lot is being cut out.
next is to seam weld this in an do the same on the other side, with the repairs around the shackles the rear will then be completed

[kstrutt1]

I also have another job on the go, this.

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It is a 40hp mariner 2 stroke outboard, it was fitted to a boat by dad bought which had sunk, suprisingliy it turns over OK and looking inside with a endoscope there is no signs of corrosion but the alloy throttle spindles had corroded solidly to the carb bodies, hence we have sourced a new pair of carbs, all the oil tanks and gear oils have been drained and replaced so the next task is to put it together and try to start it. The first minor problem is the new carbs don't have the drillings for the oil feeds, they obviously come off a model which used pre mixed oil / fuel where this one has pumped oil, it should not be too difficult to drill them though just need to go round my dad's where we keep the lathe/Mill and have a better selection of drills.

[Luxobarge]

I've had a few of those Mariner outboards, tough as old boots they are, you'll get that running again no problems IMHO.

Good work on the Moggie too BTW - and respect for doing it in such a tight environment!